My Baby!

Look what I did tonight! And by "I" - I mean I actually did it! It probably wouldn't pass the cosmetology test, but it will do. Bailey was begging me to cut her hair, and so I did.
Here's the before picture:
Notice the length.

And here's the finished look - all trimmed and straightened.

Isn't she cute!

Happy Birthday to Someone Special!

Today is the birthday of someone very special. I know that this person would not want me to disclose his/her name out on the interwebs, so I will respect his/her wishes and not do so. But, I do want to wish this person a very happy birthday. So, if today is your birthday and you are reading this - here's my special message to you:

This last year has been so special and wonderful for you and I hope that it continues into the next year. Have the most wonderful birthday!

We love you! Happy Birthday!!

Filler

Ok - so I haven't been all that good about writing lately. Erin was kind enough to point that out to me yesterday. I just haven't had anything interesting to write about - and I still don't. But, this came to me via email from my good friend Kim and I thought, hey - this could be good filler! So, enjoy - and feel free to play along!

1. What is your occupation right now? buyer/purchasing - it's not nearly as much fun as it sounds. I spend millions each year, but I'm buying boring stuff.
2. What color are your socks right now? black, to match my black boots.
3. What are you listening to right now? My co-workers sniffles and sneezes. It's that time of the year. I'm wondering what is floating around in the air in this old place.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? A slice of home made pumpkin gingerbread. It's a weight watchers recipe - that turned out pretty good!
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes - although it's been a long time.
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Mom - on the way home from work yesterday.
7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes! She was my Maid of Honor at my wedding!
8. How old are you today? 41
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? I really don't like watching sports on TV that much, but if I had to say something I'd say football because it means the weather will get cooler and I somewhat understand it.
10. What is your favorite drink? Ice tea with Splenda or Mojitos
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Nope
12. Favorite food? I don't think I could narrow it down - I love cookies, turkey and cranberries (since we just had Thanksgiving), and a pinwheel steak that we get from Central Market to name a couple of my top picks.
13. What is the last movie you watched? We watched Wall-e and Kung Fu Panda last Saturday. Yeah, I need to get out more.
14. Favorite day of the year? Thanksgiving possibly. Or any day when it's cold outside and we don't have anything to do and I'm all caught up on my laundry.
15. How do you vent anger? Depends - sometimes I cuss like a sailor and other times I cry.
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? my bike
17. What is your favorite season? Fall or winter - cooler months
18. Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries, but I do love the Rainier cherries
19. Do you want your friends/family to send you their responses? Yes
20. Living arrangements? 1 husband, 1 kid, 2 cats, 1 fish at home and 1 fish at work
21. When was the last time you cried? a couple weeks ago when I was really angry and fed up
22. What is on the floor of your closet? Old clothes that don't fit anymore and need to be taken to charity, several pairs of shoes (not all are mine!), and probably a hair scrunchie or two.
23. What did you do last night? Made the pumpkin gingerbread, ate dinner, watched a Christmas TV show, walked/jogged on the treadmill, and played with the Wii fit.
24. What are you most afraid of? Scary things. If I say or type them they might come true.
25. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburger? Oh my - a cheeseburger sounds so good right now!
26. Favorite dog breed? Lab
27. Favorite day of the week? Sunday
28. Which States have you lived in? Texas and Colorado
29. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
30. What is your favorite flower? Spider Mum

Ok - so granted - not my most exciting post, but it will do. Feel free to email or post your responses!

Erin

Ok - so I haven't been that good about writing in the blog for a while. What can I say - I've been lazy, er I mean busy.

Actually, ever since my sister wrote this, I've been writing something up in my head, something really good and poignant. Then I would see something shiny and I would get distracted and completely forget what I wrote and I'd have to start all over again. These thoughts have been bouncing around in my head long enough - I figured it was time for me to put this in writing.

When Erin was born, I was around 15 years old and was experiencing the whole teenage angst thing - wanting my independence, but not quite ready for it. Pushing my parents away, but not really wanting them to leave. When I first heard that my father and step mother were going to have another baby, I was excited about it. However, I assumed that they would hear my silent pleas and have another boy, and thus my reign as being Daddy's princess would never end. But alas, Erin turned out to be a girl. How dare she! I have to admit that I was not pleased at first to hear that I would have to share my princess tiara with this newcomer, but then, I met her and I quickly forgave her for being a girl.

Erin turned out to be a real cutie. Always happy, always smiling. She had those big chunky baby thighs that just call out to you to squeeze. (I can say that, because she doesn't have them now.) I could make her laugh, and from a very young age she could make pig noises on demand which required her to squish up her face into the cutest expression. It would always make me laugh. How could you not love that!

Because of our age difference and geographical separation, I only got to see her maybe once or twice a year. I got to know her really well when she came to live with me for a summer. Just to make sure that she knew her place though, I made her sleep under my daughter's bed. You're probably expecting me to say that I was just kidding - but nope - I'm not, she really did sleep under my daughter's bed for a summer. Calm down, it's not quite as bad as it sounds, the bed was about 4 feet off of the floor, so there was space underneath it, and we were in our old house and didn't have anywhere else to put her. She went there willingly - honest she did! I have fond memories of that time - napping in the afternoons, cleaning out the fish tank, and creating gourmet meals together. I'm thankful for that time with her, and I look at that time as the beginning of our transition into the friend/adult stage.

As I've watched her continue to grow she has gone off to college, gotten married to the most wonderful guy and she's actually working in her dream job. I'm always struck by how she's done everything so right. Don't tell her this, but I'm quite jealous of her. I'm so impressed with how strong she is and how far she has come - and at such a young age. She hasn't made any of the mistakes that I have made. I guess since I couldn't be the good example of how to do things right, the least I could do was to be the horrible warning. She is incredibly responsible with her money and hasn't ruined her credit at a young age, she also doesn't eat through her emotions and therefore has always had the body I'd kill for. I can only hope that my daughter Bailey follows in her footsteps. She is a shining example of how to do things right.

I may be the older sister, but I always have and will continue to look up to her (even if she did like Hansen as a kid).

A Day in the Life - Day 6 & 7

Today is the final instalment of the Day in the Life project. I talked to my sister, Erin, today on the phone and we both agreed, while the project was interesting - it was also a lot of stress. It kinda weighed on me each day, knowing that I had to post something, anything, each day. It's hard to come up with something each day to post about. Posts come to you - you can't force them.

Let me explain why I didn't post last night. Bailey went to a friends house for a bit and Rominal and I took advantage of the time and went to a restaurant in Denton that has live Celtic music on Friday nights. I had heard about it, and I had been wanting to go - so it worked out well. Bailey had her friend spend the night - so posting last night just didn't get done.

So, as the girls watched Spongebob Squarepants this morning, I decided to play with my camera some. Dad - you were right - the shadow I was getting was from my camera lens. Erin also suggested that I see if my camera had a close up setting. She told me to look for a flower. That triggered my memory - I had seen a flower. So, with camera in hand I took the following pictures. Here's Zephyr (or Orange as my brother David calls him).
Zephyr does this all of the time - and I've never been able to catch him in this pose until this morning. Doesn't this just beg you to go rub his belly? You can see how Twister (or Cow - again, thanks David) could care less as to what Zephyr wants.
Zephyr is trying to get my camera in this picture.
And here's the pensive Zephyr.
And now some of Twister. Again, using the close up setting on my camera.

Here's a real close up of Twister.
And that's all for now. I plan on spending the rest of my day doing laundry (it never ends) and somewhat cleaning house. Have a great day!

A Day in the Life - Day 5

Today was the 5Th day of the Day in the Life project. It was a pretty normal day. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work. I got all of the stuff to make some soup, because my Weight Watchers leader challenged us to make a soup this week. I could count on one hand the number of times I've made soup, only because Rominal doesn't like soup that much. But he's being extra supportive and said that he would eat whatever I made. Soup is lower in calories and typically good for us, so I wanted to include it in our weekly meals. So, here's my soup cooking on the stove. Please ignore the kosher salt on my stove top. I'm not always a neat cook.
It was difficult to cook, because Twister (or cow) was constantly rubbing up against my legs. He also likes to pull up the rug with his claws.
He wasn't doing this because he likes me. He wasn't doing this because he wanted me to pet him. He was only doing this because he felt that he didn't have enough food in his dish. He does not like cat food crumbs - he wants the bowl full at all times. He tells me this by pulling out some of the crumbs onto the floor.
This is my most wonderful rice cooker. Mom gave it to me for Christmas several years ago and it remains one of my favorite appliances - right next to my kitchen aid mixer. As you can see - just 13 minutes until the brown rice is ready!
Here's the finished soup - and another shot of my most wonderful new dishes. Have I told you that the bowls are deep enough to cook my oatmeal in the microwave without boiling over? They are so nice! Oh, and they are square as well. So cool.
That was my day. Oh, and Rominal ate all of his soup! Maybe that's because that's all we had, but I'm going to assume it was because it was good. Hope you had a good day!

Oh - one quick question. Does anyone know why when I take a picture up close I always get a shadow at the bottom? You can see the shadow in the rice cooker picture and in the finished soup picture. I've tried angling the camera in different ways and it always comes out there. Any ideas? Dad?

A Day in the Life - Day 4

Ok - again, to recap - please see this.

Sorry to disappoint my readers, but I didn't take any pictures today. Today I was in a bit of a funk. Rominal had to go into work early and that meant that I got up early - I did take advantage of getting up so early and I worked out at least. Back to the funk - maybe me having to get up so early threw me off for the day - and it seemed to throw Rominal off as well. We both came home today kinda grumpy, very tired, and not feeling like doing much of anything. We had a "fend for yourself" dinner night.

I did tackle the bills that I had from the other night, so that was good. But other than that - we sat on the sofa and chilled - which we very much needed. I was all set to go to bed, but I remembered that I needed to post something, anything - so sorry folks, but this is it.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday!

A Day in the Life - Day 3

Here's my day 3 of the "Day in the Life" project. Again, for the history, please see this.

I went to work like normal today - not much to tell there. Once I got home I had to rush and get dinner started. Dinner tonight included a really good cantaloupe. I tried a different way of cutting it up tonight - just to mix things up. Why? Because that's how I roll. I made some chicken, and sliced some tomatoes. It was a quick, but decent dinner. Note my new pretty plates! They are square - and I love them! Aren't they pretty?
We had to rush and eat dinner, because tonight I had a Girl Scout council meeting to go to, and Bailey was going as well to help with the babysitting in case any leaders needed to bring their kid/s. Bailey was very excited to do her first babysitting job. Unfortunately, there were no kids there for her to watch. She had fun chatting with another girl who was also there to help babysit.
Here's a picture of what I got at the meeting. This really isn't that interesting of a picture, but I felt that I needed to post another picture, because I'm such an over-achiever. NOT!!!
Oh, and those bills from last night - yeah, they are still haunting me. The storm last night was so bad that I quickly shut down the computer and went to bed, because everyone knows your safe if you are in your own bed.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Tuesday!

A Day in the Life - Day 2

Today is the second day of my Day in the Life project with Erin. In case you need to recap - read this.

I didn't do so well in terms of documenting my life. Sorry to disappoint my readers. Today was pretty typical though - went to work, came home, exercised, ate dinner, and now I'm typing in my blog so that I can avoid this:

The dreaded stack of bills that has been haunting me for the last week. It's time to face them. Oh - and it's raining and storming like crazy here, with lightening - so I think I should cut this short. Hope everyone had a good Monday!

A Day in the Life

Starting today, my sister Erin and I are doing a project, called A Week in your life. Why? Because there are a couple of people in my life that I can't say no to, and Erin is one of them, and, it seemed like an interesting project. So, for the next week, we will be documenting the daily activities that make up our lives.

The project is meant to make you take a look at your everyday activities and re-evaluate them. You might think you have a boring life, but if you step back and look at your life from afar it might look completely different. Or it might not.

I started my day rather late today. Rominal and I slept in – which was heavenly! It’s been a couple of weekends since I have been able to sleep in, so I took full advantage of the opportunity. I love Sunday mornings (or afternoons in this case) because I love to read the paper with a cup of tea. Here’s what the my kitchen table looks like when I’m finished with the paper. Note the comics on top - I always read those first.

I decided to make Erin’s bread today and I got the recipe started – the hot cereal has to cool so I knew I had about an hour, which would give the butter time to melt. I was so pleased with myself because I actually remembered to pull out the butter this time, instead of microwaving it at the last minute. It was then that I realized that I was out of butter. So, this called for an impromptu trip to the grocery store. I had planned to stay in my pajamas all day, but I guess this wasn’t going to happen. And you can’t just go to the store for one item, so I made a list and got what I needed. Here's my collection of bags - I just got the pink one the other day. It's my favorite!
Once I got back I worked a bit more on my bread. I pulled out the butter dish only to find that if I had actually looked a bit closer I would have seen that I did have butter –and it would have been enough to make my bread. I could have spent the day in my pajamas! First lesson learned from this project – slow down a bit and take time to look at the details!

Sundays around my house also means doing laundry –so the washer and dryer have been getting a full workout today. I don’t mind putting laundry in, but I can’t stand putting laundry away. Same thing with dishes – I don’t mind putting the dishes into the dishwasher, but I hate to unload it. Just thought you needed to know. Rominal has been great today and he has so far put away every load that I’ve put in. Yeah!! Here's my washer and dryer, both with full loads.
Time to take the bread out! Yum – the house now smells so good! Bailey takes this bread to lunch with her each day. I haven’t bought any bread in a while. And, I know what goes into this bread! Makes me feel like a good mommy.
It’s time for me to start dinner – and I have to straighten Bailey’s hair. I maybe would have taken a picture of that, but Bailey didn't have to go anywhere today and she DID spend the entire day in her pajamas. Lucky girl!

I hope everyone had a great Sunday!

My new do!

Today I did something that I haven't done in a very long time. I got a hair cut. This morning, I looked like this:

And now, I look like this.

I'm quite pleased with my new look and I feel like I lost 10 pounds. Actually, I'm really hoping that I did lose 10 pounds since I know I have gained a bit this week due to my trip to the State Fair of Texas.

When Bailey was in 2nd grade, she cut her hair and donated it to Locks of Love. I was (and still am) very proud of her for doing that. I've toyed with the idea of doing it myself for quite some time, but you have to have 10 inches and that always made me scared that my remaining hair would be too short. My hair had finally gotten long enough that I was ok with losing 10 inches.

In case you are not familiar with Locks of Love, here's the link to read more. I'll be mailing them my ponytail tomorrow.

The State Fair of Texas

My mom joined us for a trip to the State Fair of Texas today, so she is helping me write this post. You will notice how grammatically correct the post is – although we are both exhausted so it might not be perfect.

First of all, Charla (my Weight Watchers leader) if you are reading this – look over there! What is that? Why, it’s a shiny blog! Maybe you should go read that one instead.

Ok? Is she gone? All right – and now we can get on with our culinary trip through the State Fair of Texas or is it the State Fair of Junk Food? I should point out that we started the day with chicken fried bacon. Yup – I said that right, chicken fried bacon. I was so overwhelmed by the thought of chicken fried bacon that I didn’t even think to take a picture of that – so you will just have to imagine taking a piece of bacon, dredging it in batter, and then frying it to a crispy golden color. Sounds gross? You are correct! But the honey mustard dipping sauce wasn’t bad. We figured we could get away with this because it was 10:00 in the morning – and bacon is after all a breakfast food.

It was too early to have lunch, so as we walked around a building we nibbled on the free ice cream cone provided by the Borden Company. Again – didn’t take a picture of this, but just imagine me eating a soft serve ice cream cone. That was good. Then we had a sample of beef quesadilla. Again – just a bite, so no picture. Ditto with a jalapeño pickle sample. By this time we had worked up an appetite for some lunch. I was on the hunt for fried grilled cheese sandwiches, with tomato soup dipping sauce that I had read about in the paper. Yummy!

Bailey had a hankering for a funnel cake, so we all nibbled on that as well.

So, now it was Fletcher’s corny dog time. This alone is worth the $10.00 parking fee at the fair. At least Rominal ate the majority of this – although I did manage to get one bite.

As we were walking around the various buildings, a strong smell overcame us. We had no choice but to partake of some chocolate fudge. They knew what they were doing, the evil fudge makers.

After this, it was Rominal’s turn again. Another must for him is Jack’s French fries.

We walked around for a while, lost some money at the Midway games, and then we were really hungry. Rominal had a hotlink and mom and I shared a gyro.

Bailey just had a snow cone which turned her mouth red. I’m sure that color is completely natural.

Unfortunately, Bailey had a birthday party to go to, so we had to leave for the day. If we had more time, we would have been able to find the deep fried s’mores or the fried snickers bars. Gosh darn it! Needless to say, I haven’t logged in my food journal today – but for the record, we walked from 9:30am until 3:15pm – so that should be worth something, right Charla? Yeah, I thought you were still here.

The State Fair of Texas is wonderful – can’t wait to go again. Maybe tomorrow. . . .

My Readers . . .

Don't I just have the best readers? It's rare that I actually get to see one of my readers as they read my blog. How exciting!


Twister (or Cow) didn't know that he had missed Rominal's birthday. He's quite upset now.


He did tell me to wish Rominal a belated happy birthday and to tell him that he likes the goatee also.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Today is my dear, sweet man's 44th birthday! Happy Birthday Dear!
I couldn't decide which picture of him to put up. There are so many good ones.

This one is from a while back, but it was taken the same time as mine above. We were at Galveston. He looks so good with the goatee!

This one is also from a while back, and I had just gotten my camera. I was playing with the black and white settings. He looks so good with the goatee!

This one is from his surprise 40th birthday party. We got him good that year, and I remember how happy he was that night. Too bad you can't see his goatee.

And this picture I just love because it shows his genuine smile. Too bad there's no goatee. He's now indulging me and is growing his goatee back. This just goes to show you how great he really is. He doesn't like it, but because he knows how much I LOVE IT, he's doing it for me. So, if you see him today, first tell him Happy Birthday and then be sure to tell him how much you love the goatee.

Happy Birthday Sweetie! I love you!

I DID IT!!!!

NOTE - IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE EARLIER POST FROM TODAY - READ THAT FIRST.

I did it! Yup - today I hit 50 pounds total lost. I actually went over a bit- my total lost is now 51 pounds! I did a quick Google search and 50 pounds is equivalent to 400 gallons (1 pound is 8 gallons), or maybe a kindergartner. It felt pretty good at my weight watchers meeting today - getting a 50lb disk that they give you for losing that much weight. You get one for 25lbs, 50lbs and 75lbs, etc. I've been going to the same meeting for a while now, so a lot of people see me each week and they were quite pleased for me too. We all encourage each other.

Last month (see post) I asked my 3 readers what I should do to celebrate this accomplishment. I got lots of good responses, and some (well, really just two) not so good ones. It was suggested that I have some "boudoir" pictures taken of myself. Um, no. Won't be happening. And an ice cream celebration clearly wouldn't be appropriate either. What I did decide on was new dishes. I thought that this was very appropriate because each day when I use them, I will be reminded of how far I have come.

I've been wanting new dishes for a while now. One reason is that I have a friend who is quite the pottery snob. He makes fun of my cheap dishes whenever possible - and I guess his opinion is rubbing off on me. (Thankfully, his suggestion about having boudoir pictures taken did not rub off on me. His suggestion for the ice cream party will also be ignored.) My dishes do have one good thing going for them - I LOVE how I can pick up 4 dishes at a time with one hand out of the dishwasher - one between each finger. That should give you an idea of how lightweight and thin my current dishes are. I believe that you could read the newspaper through them - if you were so inclined. One complaint that I have about my dishes are that they roll around every time I open up my dishwasher too "eagerly." I don't know about you, but I am always very eager to do dishes and I tend to yank open my dishwasher door with too much gusto. My dishwasher door has a slight slant to it so that if I open up my door and pull out the bottom drawer too quickly, all of my plates start to roll towards the front of the dishwasher. It drives me crazy! I have to reposition them back into place because I'm that kind of person. So, I noticed that the dishes that Jae gave me (see previous post on that) didn't roll around in my dishwasher and I had a lightbulb go off in my head. What if all of my dishes were square! Then they wouldn't roll around in the dishwasher! Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! So, a couple of weeks ago I picked out some really cool looking square dishes. Because I was thinking this would be the day I hit 50lbs, I have been telling Rominal all week that he should plan on going shopping tonight, as we have some dishes to buy!

And now for what my husband did to make me cry this morning -

Well, my super-dee-duper sweet hubby surprised me this morning by having a set of these new square dishes all set up on the kitchen table so that I would see them first thing this morning when I came downstairs. What a great guy! Made me cry happy tears. I'm happy to report that I put them in my dishwasher and did the eager dishwasher door test and they stayed put!

As for my weight loss goals - I still haven't set my final goal. After all, as my Weight Watchers leader would say, I only have 5 more pounds to lose. (see previous post on that)

Happy Tears

I have a problem. I cry very easily. TV commercials make me cry. Cute little kittens can make me cry. Well, not really all of the time - but it's an example. My Grandmother would do the same thing - something would "touch" her the right way and she would tear up. I remember we had lunch with my grandparents shortly after we had gotten married and Grandma was so happy for us that she started to cry. Just the thought of her being so happy for us makes me tear up now.

Anyway - Rominal, my dear sweet husband, did something so nice this morning that it made me cry. I'll tell you what he did later today, but it was a very nice thing. I ruined my makeup even - but with happy tears.

Clean house smell!

Don’t you just love the smell of bleach/cleaning stuff in your house? I love how it makes your house smell clean. I mopped my floors today. Honest – I did! I’ll wait while you pick your jaw up off of the floor. Go ahead and take your time. Better? Good. I’ll continue. Now every time I come down the stairs I get a whiff of cleaning stuff. Now granted, if I mopped more often, maybe this would be a smell that I was more familiar with, but that’s not the point. Who wants to mop anyway? Certainly not me.

I was reminded today why I dislike mopping – it’s kind of a pain. And apparently I’m out of practice, since I mopped myself into a corner. Fine – I admit it - it’s been a really long time since I last mopped!

When we built this house, I purposely chose tiles, kitchen counters, and carpets that would hide dirt. And let me tell you – I chose very well. So, my lack of mopping is well, my secret, until now. You won’t tell, right?

Maybe in the future I’ll just spill a bit of cleaning stuff on the floor – maybe I don’t really have to mop to get that “clean house” smell. Hmmmm. . . . something to think about.

My Man!

Well, apparently a hurricane is approaching! The Girl Scouts and I were all set to go camping this weekend, but as the weather reports got gloomier (is that a word? Must be, the spell checker didn’t “ding”me) and gloomier, and parents pulled their kids from the trip, we decided to cancel. So, in it’s place we – and by “we” I’m referring to my better half of the Girl Scout world – my other leader. Couldn’t do it without her – she’s another post in herself at another time. Anyway, we decided to have a pizza night and “semi” sleep-over at my house tomorrow night. We are asking the girls to wear their pajamas and slippers and we will order pizza and probably make cookies. Any excuse to make cookies is a good one in my book. When I called my dear, sweet husband Rominal to tell him that we would have no less than 8 pre-teen girls at our house on Friday night from 6:30 until 11:00pm his first response was, “What?!?” However, today when I met him for lunch he had some wonderful ideas on things we could do with the girls to make the time go smoothly. He’s even going to help clean up the house tonight to get ready – although we will probably need to clean up more afterwards – but my other leader is allergic to cats so we want to make sure to vacuum and clean so that she doesn’t get all sniffily. What a great guy! He’s still refusing to wear his pajamas to the party, but that’s probably for the better.

First Day of School!!

Today was the first day of school in our area. Yeah! Back to a routine! Although who's going to unload my dishwasher and do my laundry each day? No, seriously, who? Anyone? Hello?

Bailey rides the bus and her bus stop is just a couple of houses down from ours. So, this being the first day of school we never know how on time the school bus will be. I was given strict instructions that I was not allowed to walk her to the bus (I wasn't really going to - I was just teasing her in telling her that I was gonna do it - honest!), nor was I allowed to sit in my car in the driveway and wait for the bus to come get her. So, I completely planned on watching her go out the door and then getting in my car and driving off to work. However, Rominal had other plans. HE was going to stand in the driveway and watch his baby until the bus came along to pick her up - and no one was gonna tell him otherwise. He only does this once a year and he wasn't going to budge anyway, so I gave up on telling him that she wasn't going to be happy. Since he was waiting, I decided to wait with him. We somewhat hid behind my van, so we weren't totally obvious. I don’t think she was upset with us anyway - we could occasionally see her smiling back at us. The bus was about 25 minutes late today - hope she made it to school on time today.

There is supposed to be a break here, but the program is giving me trouble - so pretend the next sentence is a new paragraph.

This post is mainly so that I can share a picture. I took a picture of her this morning, as I have done every morning on her first day of school. However, the picture I took this morning was much more subdued than in previous years, so I won't include today's picture (also I haven't downloaded it off of my camera yet - another reason to not include it). The picture below is by far one of my favorite pictures of her. It was taken on her first day of kindergarten. It shows her excitement and eagerness. Poor thing - she didn't know what she was getting into. I wonder if she knew then what she knows now would she still be that excited. Actually, she was very excited for school to start today - although she'd never let me photograph it.

Final word - or is it . . .

Ok - so I really shouldn't post this, but since I opened it up last week I figured what the heck. This week at Weight Watchers I didn't lose anything. Nadda, zero, zilch. I also didn't gain anything, so I do have that to be pleased about. But my cynical side would say that I didn't lose anything because I went and opened my mouth up last week and talked about my weight loss struggles - and I don't really believe that - - or do I? Mooohaahaahaaa (evil laugh)

I'm not too surprised that I didn't lose this week, since I had a big weight loss last week. My body has had the same pattern for a while now, lose big one week, nothing the next, then 0.4 or 0.2 for a couple of weeks and then start all over again. But when your in the nothing week it's hard to remember the bigger weeks. My leader this week had an appropriate message that hit home with me. She was saying that whenever anyone asked you how much weight you have to lose you should always say 5 pounds. 5 pounds is a whole lot easier to grasp than a much larger number. We've all lost 5 pounds at some point in our lives - sometimes in one day if your not feeling good. 5 pounds seems "do-able." For example, if at the beginning of my weight loss journey I was thinking all along that I had to lose 50 pounds I would have gotten discouraged and quit right away. Instead I have focused on each mini-goal and that seems to have worked for me. And I'm not saying that I am going to stop at 50, I'm just using that as a number for now. After all, I only have to lose 5 more pounds. See how well that works?

Anyway, I just thought that in case my 3 readers were checking my blog daily to see if today would be the day that I had made it to 50 pounds lost - well, today ain't it. I said it might take me 4 months - and it looks like that might be the case - but that's ok. Those months will pass no matter what. So, no more posts about weight for a while (unless I change my mind) - just to be sure that I don't jinx it.

One more thing I will pass along that's good from this week - I met with my doctor on Monday and I am now off of one of my blood pressure medicines. I had been taking Cozar for about the last 3 years (I'm guessing - I can't tell you how long I've been on it - could be 5 years for all I know). I'm testing not taking it now - meaning that I've been monitoring my blood pressure now that I haven't taken any this week. My blood pressure has remained consistent and at good numbers - so things are looking good! And the even better part is that Cozar had recently gone up in price - apparently there isn't a generic equivalent and the insurance companies figured that out. So, if I can stay off of this medicine, I'll be saving $50.00 per month! Yeah! Now, the realist in me must say, well, the savings in Cozar will make up for the expense of weight watchers, but I'm not gonna do that. Instead, my realist self and I are going to enjoy a glass of water while I pretend that it is a chocolate malt. Ummmmm, chocolate.

Mood Sways

Do you ever have some really good news that kinda sets your mood for the next couple of days/weeks? Or does bad news make your outlook completely different as well? Yeah? Me too.

I haven't posted much about my diet because, well, I think it would make me more accountable than I am already. It would be difficult for me if I posted on how I think I'm doing and then have a bad couple of weeks. That's too much pressure for me. But, I guess I'm about to do just that. So here goes.

Since I started my Weight Watchers journey, I've been pretty consistent in my weight loss. I might not have lost as much as I would have liked to each week, but I've at least dropped each week. On the very rare occasions when I did gain, it was 1 pound or less. So, you can imagine how I've felt after having two weeks in a row where I gained. Granted, I was out of town for my brother's wedding and the week before that my friend Jae visited. These are normal activities and I should have learned how to deal with them by now, but I still have the attitude that food consumed while on vacation or with out-of-town guests doesn't count. Well, turns out it does. Ha! Who knew?

So, back to my initial thought - I was feeling pretty down - thinking that maybe I had hit a plateau and who was I to think that I could really finish this thing anyways. I'm still often shocked that I've made it this far. But my leader suggested that we try new activities during the week and I tried walking. I only got to walk 3 times during the week - and I'm counting the week now not as Monday through Sunday, but as Wednesday through Wednesday since I weigh in on Wednesdays. Each walk I did was about 45 minutes long and I was walking pretty fast. I'd put in my earphones and walk to the beat of whatever music I was listening to. I came home drenched!

To my surprise and delight, I dropped 2.8 pounds this week which knocked off the weight I gained during the two previous weeks plus a bit extra. I'm now feeling like I'm ready to get back on and ride this thing out. My outlook is so much better - the world is a happy place again. I'm now setting my sights on my next BIG number - 50 pounds lost. And again, I'm hesitant to put this in writing because it might take me 4 months to get there (gad it'd better not take me that long!), but I can see it on the horizon.

So, for my 3 readers and anyone else who might want to (excuse the pun) weigh in on the matter - how should I celebrate 50 pounds lost? Clearly, going out for ice cream is out of the question, although a friend jokingly did suggest that. I'm completely open to suggestions, and of course - money IS an object.

Why I like driving better than flying

We recently returned home from a trip to Boulder to see my brother David get married to his long-time love, Lauren. We make annual trips to Colorado and typically we drive. This trip was to be such a short one that we decided it was best to fly. I'm now re-thinking that decision.

Side note - When did flying become so much like riding on a bus? I remember when I was young that people used to get dressed up to fly. It used to be a big deal. Not anymore. I saw one guy on the plane dressed in jeans and a small tank top - it wasn't appropriate. Then, after he took his seat, and he immediately removed his boots and then his socks! Is this normal?

Anyway, back to flying. Our departing flight was delayed at the gate. We were told that we had to wait on a mechanic to come fix the back door or something along those lines. After about an hour, a mechanic-looking guy walked with purpose through the plane. Once he got to the back of the plane we heard a door slam and then he walked back through the plane to the front. Apparently all the back door needed was a good slam to get it shut. If that's all it was, I could have done that! I can slam doors, honest I can! Unfortunately, no one asked me to help out.

After the door was slammed properly, we taxied over to the runway. Of course, there was a line of planes waiting to depart. Finally it was our turn. We started down the runway, engines roaring and then the engines suddenly slowed down and we made an abrupt turn off of the runway. The pilot announced that a warning light had gone off and they would have to get a mechanic to check it out or possibly get us transferred to another plane. I'm thinking another plane sounds REAL good right about now. I take a look at Rominal and he is in good spirits telling me that you just have to laugh it off. He was trying to keep me from getting panicked. After a while the pilot comes back on and says that we are now cleared for take-off. But what about the warning light? Did the just unplug it? Nothing was mentioned. Ok - laugh it off, Wendy. Take your mind off of the warning light. We take off without a hitch and finally get to Colorado Springs about 2 hours later than we were supposed to. Now granted, if we had driven, it would have taken us about 13 hours and we arrived in around 8 hours. Don't worry - I'll show my math. We left the house at 3:00pm (Texas time) and didn't arrive until around 10:00 (Colorado time) - so that was 8 hours total. So, the plane was 5 hours faster on this trip.

For our return trip, we were scheduled on a Sunday flight out of Colorado Springs. American Airlines has 6 flights out of Colorado Springs to DFW every day. For some reason, our flight was cancelled. By the time we got to the airport and found out, the only other flight that day was booked. I even asked about flights out of Denver. Rominal was so mad that he had to go sit down. He couldn't even hold a conversation. So, my only choice was to get ourselves booked on the next flight out of Colorado Springs for the next day. I rented us another car and we drove back out to my parent's house. I called to confirm our flight arrangements on Sunday night and discovered that they had booked Bailey on the return flight, but not me and Rominal. AGGGGGHHHH!!! Luckily, there were still seats available and we were booked as well. However, they would not let us get seat assignments. They said that this had to be done at the airport.

Monday comes along and we go to check into our flight and the only seats available are in the very last row - the seats that used to be occupied by a closet according to the flight attendant who was joking with us on the flight. So, there's no window. Fine, whatever. However, after this flight I now know though that I MUST look out a window or I start to get car sick. I had the fan thingy on high blowing on me as we were landing.

So, time-wise, our scheduled flight was on Sunday at 3:15 (Colorado time). We left for the airport at 1:00 that Sunday. We didn't get home until around 5:00 the next day (Texas time). That's 27 hours total! We could have driven both ways in this time. And, if we had driven, I could have packed whatever I wanted, I could have looked out the window all that I wanted, I could have made Rominal stop to let me go to the bathroom anytime I wanted (I'm NOT going on a plane) and I wouldn't have had someone in front of me leaning back into my magazine. I'm thinking we are driving this October.

Dinner party!

Did everyone have a good weekend? It was our last weekend without Bailey so Rominal and I took advantage of our time together. Saturday, we had Mom and Howard, and Donna and Mark over for dinner. Rominal was going to make beer butt chicken, but Saturday morning he came downstairs and said, why don’t you make this instead. He handed me a recipe for Buttermilk chicken. That was his way of saying, “I don’t feel like cooking today.” The recipe was from the PBS TV show Everyday Food. We happened to have the episode taped and we sat down and watched it. It looked easy enough (my qualifier for a good recipe) and so we decided to make that. It turned out really well.

I also made Erin’s French bread, which was fun to do too. I had a Lucile Ball moment while making the bread. I put the dough in a bowl and set it in aside to let it rise for an hour. After an hour, I punched it down and set it aside again to let it do the second rise. Since it was supposed to rise in a warm area, I put the bowl in the microwave, which was slightly warmer than my house. I went upstairs to take my shower and get ready. I came back downstairs and opened up the microwave to find that the dough had way more than doubled in size, and had busted out of the plastic wrap that was covering the bowl and was now oozing all over the microwave. It was similar to an old scary movie – something along the lines of attach of the bread dough.

We finished off our meal with a giant chocolate covered strawberry. Jae had sent me a box of them as a thank you for spending last weekend with us. She’s always doing thoughtful things like that. The strawberries were the perfect ending to an evening of good company, and if I do say so myself, pretty good food. Oh, speaking of Jae, the last time she came to visit us she sent me a set of really cool dishes, each one is a different color and has a different vegetable on it. We used those for the salad on Saturday night and I always get great compliments on them. They are fun to use.

So, Mom asked for copies of all of the recipes that I used. So, to make it easy for me, here’s the menu and recipes.
Buttermilk baked chicken with Spinach salad
French bread - side note here - I didn't have corn meal or wheat germ as Erin's recipe calls for, so I used (what else) parchment paper! It worked great!
Smashed Potatoes - mine never look like hers, but they are still darn good.
Watermelon (no recipe here, just slice up some fresh watermelon silly!)
Chocolate dipped strawberries (sorry, no recipe again)

Now, go do some cooking!

My weekend

My dear friend Jae came to visit me last weekend. We always have such a good time together. She’s so easy to talk to and we enjoyed many hours of talking. I am quite lucky to have her as one of the sides of my square (inside reference - sorry).

In her honor, I made a chocolate bar candy cake . I think it is similar to one that my mom used to make when I was younger, so I was hoping to recreate my memory. It turned out pretty good. My only complaint was the icing. I'm not a fan of cool whip and the icing was made with cool whip and cream cheese. If I make the cake again, I think I'll do a different icing - but still include the candy bars. Here’s a picture to make you jealous.

Saturday, we decided we wanted to cook some yummy stuff. So, we enlisted Rominal to smoke some ribs and chicken thighs for us. Here’s a picture of the ribs going on the grill.

And here’s Rominal cutting the finished product up. I love a man who cooks. How sexy is that! The ribs look good babe!I’ve mentioned my new love of parchment paper to my sister and I’ve been asked to explain it a bit further. Here’s why I love parchment paper. You take a nasty looking pan such as this. (And really - how embarrassing that I am showing you my nasty looking pan. Please tell me that everyone has pans, er, I mean a pan like this in their house. Please.)
And then you cover it up with parchment paper. Then add whatever you want to cook. We made my version of smashed potatoes and some veggies. The parchment paper makes everything come out crispy, and it doesn’t leave a mess. And it's easy clean-up! This picture is of the veggies, pre-cooking because the colors are prettier.
Parchment paper - get some!

I’ll finish this entry with a picture of Bailey on the morning that she left us. I'm putting this picture here because it was on my camera when I downloaded all of the other pictures I took this weekend. I’m so looking forward to seeing her next week!